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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Revisiting Heroic Stones

Minute by minute heroics is a good way to cooperate with God in constructing the monastery of the heart. Each minute can provide a 'stone' of opportunity. Each can be lived well (perhaps even heroically) for God.

'Have
you seen how that imposing building was built? One brick upon another.
Thousands. But, one by one. And bags of cement, one by one. And blocks
of stone, each of them insignificant compared with the massive whole.
And beams of steel. And men working, the same hour, day after day....
Have you seen how that imposing building was built? ... By dint of
little things!' (St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way 823) I am being given thousands, millions, of minutes to live on
this earth. Each is insignificant compared to the whole .. but each
one, added to each other one, is absolutely necessary to make up my
life. I have the minutes, I have the mortar of free will, and I have the
Architect's plan of Scripture.

I have recognized one seemingly inconsequential way in
which I haven't been following the plan all that well. Sometimes I grab a
few perfectly good, newly minted minutes, and slap the mortar on them
with a harrumph. I have not considered this activity significant at all,
because my harrumphs have been directed at 'things.' At inanimate objects
like misbehaving computers, spoons that leap out of my hand onto the
floor, remotes that play hide-and-seek.

I
am anything but heroic when these items play their tricks. Huffs and
grumbles and loud sighs pop right out of me in search of the offending
object. 'Take THAT harrumph, you rotten, jumping spoon!'

I don't do this when others are around. At least - not when they're in
the same room. Or, well, not when anyone is actually paying attention.
Or, well, that's how it started. It began as a casual harrumph here, an
innocent snap there. So what if it became something of a habit? It
isn't as if it's hurting anything. Except, of course, a few hyperactive
spoons.

But the development of such behavior is far from heroic. It has pulled
me away from 'heroism' toward a grumbling, critical habit of internal
whining. If I let it, it can alter the way I look at life. It certainly
is not seeing things "through the grille." Having realized this, I am asking for grace to overcome my
misuse of minutes... each one precious, each one a minute in
which I have the chance to be heroic. Not just passably good enough, but
heroic. I don't have to give in to big sins, and I don't have to indulge in moments of whining.

If I am tempted to grumble - why, look at the opportunity I'm being
given! I can resist the temptation, and I can thank God in that very
moment. Thank You, Lord, that I have a computer on which to write of
Your goodness, and if that device is acting up right now, give me
patience to deal with it and to turn this moment to good. Thank You, Lord, for plenty of
food to eat. Thank You
that I don't have to eat it with my hands.

And thank You for a nice, washable floor to catch all my leaping spoons.

THE CLOISTERED HEART IS a way of living for God in the midst of the world. It is heart monasticism that can be embraced by married or single persons, religious or lay. It's an analogy in which our lives can be "monasteries," our hearts can live in the "enclosure" of Christ, and all things may be viewed through the will of God as through a "grille."